Major Parties Vow to Continue Strip-Searching Kids and Shackling Imprisoned Women Giving Birth

The Albanese Labor government and the Coalition are set to vote down a bill that would end shackling women prisoners giving birth on Thursday, 15 October 2026. The decision to maintain this medieval practice is based on the recommendation of a major party top-heavy Senate committee. And a second bill to end the strip searching of children in detention will likely be voted down too.

Senator Lidia Thorpe introduced the Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting Shackling During Childbirth) Bill 2026 on 18 August this year. The Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung senator has prioritised this barbaric issue that tends to fly under the radar of most. And a key remark made nationwide in the wake of the legislation’s appearance has been, “I didn’t know that took place.”

“Shackling people during childbirth is cruel, inhumane, degrading and traumatic,” Thorpe made clear, during her August second reading speech on the bill. “Giving birth is already one of the most physically and emotionally intense experiences a person can have. Giving birth in prison or any other custodial setting compounds this. Giving birth while being shackled compounds it further still.”

Yet, the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs released its report on the bill on 6 October 2026. The inquiry progressed two recommendations, with the primary suggestion being that the Commonwealth engage with states and territories on the practice. And to translate this recommendation into plainer English, would be that the inquiry has determined to do nothing.

This recommendation might best be described as the “passing the buck” excuse. Thorpe knows that prisons are a state and territory issue. But as the states and territories have continued this shackling procedure into the 2020s, she’s calling for intervention at the federal level, which is a clear possibility. But this has – so far – been met with the regular excuse to avoid progressing any reform.

So, while the committee is yet deliver its report on whether to end the equally barbaric practice of strip searching kids in custody at the time of writing, the Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting the Strip Searching of Children) Bill 2026 will likely be voted down too based on similar reasoning, which again obscures Thorpe’s demand that Labor intervene because the state and territories are yet to act.

Shackled during birth

“The evidence received by the committee about the practice of shackling during childbirth and the consequences this can have on both mother and child is concerning and it is clear to the committee that this is a detrimental practice,” the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs set out in its last week released report.

“Significantly, the committee also notes that state and territory governments are responsible for the administration of corrective services, including the operation of prisons and the policies and practices governing the use of restraints,” the report continues. “The evidence received by the committee demonstrates that these arrangements differ between jurisdictions”.

Evidence heard during the committee process included that the reasoning for shackling incarcerated women to a bed during childbirth is for security and to prevent escape. Yet, such reasoning falls down when considering the process of giving birth rules out the woman from actually attempting jailbreak. And any risks can be mitigated by having correctional staff onsite.

The 2025 Guiding Principles for Corrections in Australia distinctly prohibits using restraints on individuals during birth. The Senate inquiry found the practice continues in most jurisdictions but not Tasmania. And the committee member also considered comparable nations, like the US and New Zealand, which don’t shackle during birth, whilst in the UK, an official ban continues to be breached.

In ending, the Senate committee raised the fact that law-and-order and corrections are the regular domain of the state and territories, which have differing approaches to shackling at birth at present. So, the committee considered that interactions between the federal government and its state and territory counterparts might progress reforms. But, in truth, this will likely maintain the status quo.

Getting kids to get their gear off

At the time of writing, 13 October 2026, the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs was yet to table its report on Thorpe’s Prohibiting the Strip Searching of Children Bill, despite it being due on that specific date. But as its vote is scheduled for Thursday as well, the report is likely to appear in the interim, to make similar recommendations to the shackling at birth inquiry.

Strip searching has been a controversial issue over the last decade. Concerns about the rising use of strip searches in public have led to the practice in prisons being scrutinised as well. Being subjected to strip searches is known to traumatise people, especially if the subject has been sexually assaulted or abused in the past. And subjecting kids to this humiliating practice is an obvious issue.

“Strip searching is extremely traumatising for children, and trauma in children leads to a higher rate of social and emotional problems later in life,” Senator Thorpe explained, during her second reading speech on the ending strip searches legislation. “Trauma affects children’s brain development and can affect their long-term identity formation and wellbeing.”

Thorpe too cited figures, which revealed that of 900,000 strip searches conducted on Western Australian inmates over 2014 to 2019, only 0.28 percent of these cases turned up any contraband. Several other studies the senator is aware of found strip search success rates of 0 percent, whilst 127 strip searches carried out on minors in NSW child prisons in 2022, found items on three occasions.

“New Zealand has already banned strip searching of all children in custody,” Thorpe said, in ending her speech on this invasive practice. “Children are the most vulnerable group in custodial settings; the group that can be most harmed by strip searching; and the group that we must make particular efforts to protect and keep out of the justice system.”

Federal intervention is key

Thorpe has further been pressing PM Anthony Albanese to take action on rising Aboriginal deaths in custody and the forced removal of Aboriginal children over recent years, to which he’s repeatedly suggested that his government is powerless to act as these are state and territory matters. However, this just serves as an excuse for federal Labor not to intervene and rather let these issues fester.

NATSILS (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service) obtained legal advice from senior barristers, via the Justice and Equity Centre, in September last year. This confirmed that the federal government does have the power to intervene in state and territory laws, like youth justice and corrections, via the external affairs power contained in section 51(xxix) of the Constitution.

Coming from senior counsels Kate Eastman SC and Emma Dunlop, the advice was sought as NATSILS and other parties had been calling on Canberra to intervene in “dangerous new laws” recently being implemented by states and territories that result in the rising incarceration of children. These multi-jurisdictional moves to crack down on youths have been noted internationally.

The advice further shows that harmful practices, like strip searching kids, shackling women at birth, rising deaths in custody, the increasing removals of Aboriginal children and a swag of other rights-eroding laws targeting kids, could be prevented by federal Labor, which is well aware of all these issues, yet it is simply failing to act. 

Federal Labor and the Coalition are in no way bound to continue the strip searching of children or the shackling of women giving birth in correctional settings. Indeed, Albanese could champion these clear and necessary humane reforms, but as these continuing practices are no secret, he’d rather permit the states and territories to continue on with these rights-eroding and harmful laws.

“Earlier this year, a woman in Queensland was shackled throughout active labour, including during intimate obstetric examinations,” Thorpe said in a statement last week, after the release of the inquiry report. “She remained handcuffed while being rushed into surgery for an emergency caesarean, and the shackles were immediately reapplied after she was moved into recovery.”

“After giving birth, she was told she could not safely hold her baby because the handcuffs posed a danger to the newborn,” the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung senator added.

“She pleaded for the opportunity to hold and comfort her daughter but was denied that opportunity.”

Image: Official portrait of Anthony Albanese 2022 by Commonwealth of Australia is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Opposition leader Angus Taylor by the Department of Climate Change is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Photo of Lidia Thorpe supplied.